Reporting is a key part of safety on Momio and on many other social media. It works because it’s so simple: When you see something inappropriate, you report it for the administrators to check. Reporting can usually be done with a couple of clicks.

The human touch

The reason reporting works so well is the human touch. For sure, machines can spot certain words and certain types of behaviour, and in general be a huge help, but they cannot (yet) replace real humans with feelings, morals and understanding of context. A human knows if “you’re silly” was said in good spirit or not, for example, and a human operates better in the grey zones.

Coincidentally, the human touch is also the biggest problem with reporting. Because we are not machines, we make mistakes or odd decisions. People constantly report things that are not against the rules. They might have misunderstood something or they might just have a bad day, or they might even want to bully someone. Or maybe they think that something that is allowed should be against the rules.

This is extra difficult for children who are not used to making right or wrong type of decisions, or who don’t quite understand what it means to report something. Therefore we see reports about shoes that don’t match the outfit or clothes that aren’t right for the season. We see accusations of copying someone’s style or picture – but can’t do anything about it because jeans and a sweater is hardly a trademark or because the picture was a widely-spread meme. And we get a fair deal of “she said that he said” type of reports.

All of this is fine: It’s better to report once too many than to be scared of it. It also gives us a chance to guide what should be reported and what should be solved one to one with the other person. And most of the time, children are good at reporting. Great, actually. They know that they can report, and they know how to do it – and they report relevant things. Mostly. ;)

Reports as a part of SAFEGUARD

On Momio, we have an extensive safety system called SAFEGUARD. We are extremely proud of it. It’s a combination of machines, artificial intelligence and trained professionals, and reports are an important part of it. Still, we never take actions only based on reports. A trained professional will look at the cases before any action is taken. The claims in the report need to be verifiable.

About the author:

Silja Nielsen, Momio

Silja Nielsen is Head of Community and Safety at Momio. She has worked at the company since 2010. Silja has a master’s degree in Media Studies and is interested in privacy, online behaviour and online communities.

To celebrate Finland’s 100 years of independence, Save the Children and Telia are campaigning to promote children’s rights in digital environments. The campaign is called Digiboom, and it aims to discuss the possibilities and challenges of the internet with children, young people and their parents. Digiboom takes concrete actions to make the internet a better place for children. During the campaign, we have been travelling around, joining children and young people’s events and starting discussions online.

Well, I have never thought about my rights on the internet.

“Well, I have never thought about my rights on the internet” is a common answer when we bring up the topic with kids and young people. We hope to change that, because these rights get violated on the internet every day. Parents have an important task in making sure that the rights are respected and that children know their rights. We challenge all parents to discuss at least the following with their children:

1. The child has a right to privacy

Make sure your child understands that revealing everything about oneself online is not necessary – or even recommended. Starting when the child is young, bring up in discussion that some things should not be shared on the internet. Good examples are contact information, passwords and personal family matters. Consider whether communication on the internet is private or public. For example, can you ever be sure that a WhatsApp group really is secret and private?

2. The child has a right to participation and knowledge

Talk about the information that is being shared online. Who has produced the information? How to recognize a reliable information source? Follow the on-going discussion about false news together and ask what your child thinks about the reliability of internet as an information source. Discuss what kind of information your child shares online and how to join societal debates online. Encourage your child to express themselves – for example by publishing videos online.

3. The child has a right to play and free time

Discuss together how one could improve their own health and well-being even if they play games and use the mobile phone often and a lot. Avoid demonising the child’s media usage. For example, instead of worrying about addiction, concentrate on what kind of content the child is interacting with. Discuss why the child enjoys for example playing games and what kind of digital skills he or she gains while playing online. Strengthen your child’s skills to notice when media usage starts to make them feel bad or sad. Give extra attention to sleep – media usage should never disturb the child’s sleep. Find out together how to make apps silent for the night.

4. The child has a right to be protected

Everyone has the right to set their own limits online. No one should ever cross those limits. Explain that some people are up to no good and that’s why it’s always good to remain critical online. Remember that all kinds of harassment, luring to sexual activity, bullying, threatening and name-calling are absolutely forbidden online. Equip your child to know what to do if they encounter something unpleasant online. By getting to know your child’s media world and by frequently discussing it together in everyday situations without negativity, you create a bond with your child. This bond will help your child trust you even when something unfortunate is going on.

You can read more from our parent guide (in Finnish) and get to know the campaign on our social media channels. We use the hashtag #digiboom.

About the author:

Anniina Lundvall, Digiboom

Anniina works in the Digiboom campaign as an advisor from Save the Children Finland. She has a long history working with children’s rights and media education. As an advisor, she focuses on child rights and business principles online, safer web-environments for children and youth participation in digital environments.